The Secretary of State’s office recently certified that petitioners had collected 115,209 valid signatures statewide, falling short of the required 115,570 valid signatures, or three percent of the total vote cast for governor in 2010, needed to bring the issue before the legislature. Per the citizen initiated statute process outlined in the Ohio Constitution, petitioners were given 10 additional days to collect and submit the required signatures.

As part of the total number of signatures needed to place the measure on the ballot, petitioners must also have collected signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and within each of those counties collected enough signatures equal to 1.5 percent of the total vote cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election, 2010. Petitioners previously met that requirement in their initial filing.

The Secretary of State’s office will process and catalog the petitions prior to shipping them to the county boards of elections, which are tasked with verifying that the signatures collected are from qualified electors of Ohio who are registered at the address provided. Secretary Husted has directed boards of election to complete the review of signatures by next week.